F1Weekly Podcast # 1099

George keeps Max behind for the Canadian Grand Prix Victory! Norris collides with team mate Piastri! We were all waiting for that! Ferrari’s Fred under mucho pressure. George ready to sign on the dotted line and, Robert Kubica wins at Le Mans in privately entered Ferrari!…This week’s Nasir Hameed corner…Indy Car journalist extraordinaire Robin Miller and, our old friend Olivier Panis.

George:

I am really pleased to take the team’s first victory of the season. I felt in control throughout and was able to manage the race to bring home the win. With the slightly higher temperatures, we thought we may struggle a little more than we saw on Friday. We did a good job of managing the tyres though and had the pace to hold off the chasing pack. A big well done and thank you to everyone at Brackley and Brixworth and a massive congratulations to Kimi on taking his first of what I am sure will be many podiums.

We look to have made a step forward with our car in recent races. We have typically gone well in Montreal though and we knew this race would likely suit us a little more than others. We can’t get ahead of ourselves as there is still plenty of work for us to do to get into the fight for victories more regularly. I am looking forward to trying to do that next time out in Austria.

MONTREAL, QUEBEC – JUNE 15: Second placed Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and Oracle Red Bull Racing on the podium with his trophy during the F1 Grand Prix of Canada at Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve on June 15, 2025 in Montreal, Quebec. (Photo by Sam Bloxham/LAT Images)

Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen held off the challenge of his title rivals as he produced a superb drive around the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to secure second place behind the Mercedes of George Russell at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The Dutch driver ended the race two places ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri of McLaren, whose teammate Lando Norris failed to finish the race. That means that Verstappen is now just 21 points behind Norris and 43 back from Piastri.

“It was quite a good race, even though I think the first two stints we were struggling quite a bit on the tyres. We were doing quite an aggressive strategy, but luckily on that final stint we managed to hang in there, and actually the pace was a bit better on the lower fuel load,” said Verstappen. “I think we drove an attacking-slash-defending race but it worked out for us and I think that was the maximum possible for us today.

Max:

“Today we definitely maximised everything that we had available. We drove quite a defensive race today and it was quite tough out there. The tyre degradation was quite high and in the first two stints we were going through the tyres quite quickly. We were quite aggressive with our strategy to stay ahead and during the last pit stop I thought it might be difficult to make it to the end. The last stint helped us a bit with the lighter fuel load and we were a bit more kind on the tyres which was positive.

If you look at the whole race this was the maximum result possible. We didn’t really have the pace to fight upfront and had a bit too much degradation to be in the fight for the win, so I’m happy to be P2. The gap wasn’t big to George but didn’t think I had the pace to fight for the win. There are lots of positives from the weekend: as a Team we did the best performance possible, got it right and our car was in a decent window. Looking to the next race we have a bit of work to do with our tyre management and the degradation but lots of positives to take forward.”

Kimi:

That was a very intense and stressful race! I am really happy to take my first podium in F1 though. The start was the key to achieving that. I managed to get track position on Piastri and that enabled us to show our pace. At moments I was able to catch Verstappen and put him under pressure. In the final stint, I think I pushed a little too hard in the early stages and that made it difficult near the end. I was able to defend from the McLarens though and bring the car home in P3.

I want to say thank you to everyone at Brackley and Brixworth. They have been working so hard to improve the car and I am glad to be able to get a result like this and have both our cars on the podium. It is a special moment for me personally and I am looking forward to building on it in the coming races.

Charles:

P5 was the best we could do today. We could maybe have tried to do something different with the strategy, but at the end of the day, it wouldn’t have changed much for the outcome of the race. Most of all, our starting position was what put us at a disadvantage.

It’s quite a specific track, so I don’t think that too much of what we saw in terms of performance will carry on to the coming races. We will regroup and come back stronger.

Lewis:

P6 is a good result considering the cards we were dealt today. The car felt good in the opening laps and I was optimistic about what we could do, but unfortunately we picked up significant damage early on which cost us a lot of downforce. From that point, it was tough to manage the balance and pace, and some brake issues in the middle stint made things even harder. We’re not where we need to be, but we’re fully focused on the steps we need to take to compete at the front. That’s our priority heading into Austria.

Kirkwood Earns First Career Oval Victory in WWTR Thriller!

MADISON, Ill. (Sunday, June 15, 2025) – Nobody can call Kyle Kirkwood just a street-circuit specialist anymore. Kirkwood used pace found with help from his teammates and masterful strategy in a chaotic, exciting race to win the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 presented by Axalta and Valvoline on Sunday night at World Wide Technology Raceway.

It was the fifth career victory for Kirkwood and career-best third win this season. But most importantly to Kirkwood, it was his first career oval victory after four wins on street circuits.

“My first oval win; I’m over the moon right now,” Kirkwood said. “Ovals have eluded me for a very long time, so it’s nice to get that first one and break that ice.

“An oval win and a road course win is what I wanted. I didn’t want people just to think of me as a street course guy or else they’ll just have me going to street courses. A little bit of job security there. This is a big one, a big one for the guys. This is huge, massive.”

The podium was filled with three INDY NXT by Firestone champions. Kirkwood drove his No. 27 Siemens Honda fielded by Andretti Global to victory by .5398 of a second over Pato O’Ward in the No. 5 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet. Christian Rasmussen finished a career-best third in the No. 21 ECR Splenda Chevrolet after starting 25th, making 62 on-track passes.

Six-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Scott Dixon finished fourth in the No. 9 PNC Bank Chip Ganassi Racing Honda, his best result since he placed second in the season opener in March at St. Petersburg.

Santino Ferrucci continued the recent upswing of A.J. Foyt Enterprises as he produced his third straight top-five finish this season in the No. 14 Bommarito Automotive Group Chevrolet.

The 260-lap race, in which 14 of the 27 drivers led, came down to an intriguing gambit between two fuel strategies and navigating thickets of traffic over the last 50 laps. There were 254 passes for position, tying the series record for WWTR set last year.

Dixon, a master of saving fuel, was the last car not to stop during the second-to-last pit cycle and took the lead on Lap 194. Then David Malukas brushed the Turn 4 wall on Lap 196 in the No. 4 Clarience Technologies Chevrolet of A.J. Foyt Enterprises, triggering the fourth and final caution of the race. Dixon cruised behind the pace car in the lead, which allowed him to save more fuel in a possible attempt to need to make just one more pit stop.

Then Dixon stopped when the pits opened on Lap 200 and stayed in the lead due to his one-lap gap before the stop. On the restart on Lap 207, Dixon led O’Ward, Kirkwood and Conor Daly in the No. 76 Juncos Hollinger Racing Chevrolet.

Kirkwood passed O’Ward and stalked Dixon, pressing him to use more fuel, but couldn’t pass. Andretti Global then called Kirkwood to the pits for his last stop on Lap 233.

Dixon and strategist Mike Hull knew “The Iceman” couldn’t stretch one tank of fuel for 60 laps without significantly more caution laps, so Dixon pitted on Lap 236 and handed the lead to O’Ward.

O’Ward made his final stop on Lap 238, with Ferrucci taking the top spot. When Dixon, Kirkwood and O’Ward cycled through their final stops, Kirkwood ended up the leader among that trio due to speedy work by his Andretti Global pit crew.

Ferrucci led a group of four cars that still had to make their final stop, all running ahead of Kirkwood, O’Ward and Dixon. But Ferrucci, Marcus Ericsson in the No. 28 Fresh Connect Central Honda of Andretti Global, Callum Ilott in the No. 90 PREMA Racing Chevrolet and Felix Rosenqvist in the No. 60 SiriusXM Honda of Meyer Shank Racing w/Curb-Agajanian all pitted from the lead by Lap 256, handing the lead back to Kirkwood. He never trailed thereafter despite pressure from O’Ward.

“The starts and the restarts were big,” Kirkwood said. “We were not too happy with the car yesterday, and we got some help from the teammates and made the car really good. In the beginning, I really didn’t think we had it, but as it got dark and it cooled down, this No. 27 Andretti Global Honda just came alive.”

NTT P1 Award winner Will Power crashed in Turn 4 on just the fourth lap due to a tire puncture on his No. 12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet. That was the portent of a tough night for Team Penske, which has a record nine wins in this event.

Five-time WWTR winner Josef Newgarden crashed out of the race while leading on Lap 130 in a frightening collision with rookie Louis Foster of Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Foster brushed the wall in Turn 4, damaging his steering, and careened into the path of the onrushing Newgarden, who hit and then climbed Foster’s No. 45 Droplight/Desnuda Tequila Honda before landing upside-down on its roll hoop and aeroscreen, showering sparks. Both drivers were unhurt.

Two-time WWTR pole winner Scott McLaughlin, who led 51 laps, was eliminated on Lap 216 after a mechanical problem in the No. 3 DEX Imaging Chevrolet.

While Kirkwood joked in victory lane about this win providing him with job security, that’s the least of his concerns so far in his breakout season. Kirkwood and points leader Alex Palou of Chip Ganassi Racing (five victories) remain the only drivers to win in the eight races so far this season. Honda also stayed unbeaten as an engine manufacturer in the series this season.

Palou’s championship lead over O’Ward was trimmed from 90 to 73 points after Palou finished eighth in the No. 10 Ridgeline Chip Ganassi Racing Honda. Kirkwood is third, two points behind O’Ward and 75 behind Palou.